Today we’ll be doing a quick and easy take on chicken with herbs and ranch. It’s something I like to make in a quick fix over a bed of pasta. With only 5 ingredients, you should have most of the stuff needed in your kitchen for this one. Tender, juicy chicken breasts seasoned with Italian seasoning and garlic and a generous spoonful of ranch dressing. It looks and sounds simple and it is. But not at the cost of skimping on flavor. This one is yummy.

You can do this in a regular nonstick skillet or a cast iron. I did mine with full boneless, skinless chicken breasts but you can opt to cut them into bite-sized pieces to lessen cooking time, take out the guesswork and make it easier. And if you have some browned bits sticking to the bottom of your pan, don’t forget to rub your chicken in them to soak up all that flavor!

Today we’ll be making some creamy Alfredo pasta mixed with bite-sized pieces of fresh asparagus, baby portobella mushrooms and topped with thick cut slices of seared chicken in lemon pepper seasoning. Top it with freshly cracked black pepper, parsley and of course, some Parmesan cheese.

I used farfalle or bow-tie pasta but you can substitute it with your favorite pasta. And for those that aren’t fans of mushrooms, you can change it up with whatever you like, or just leave it out. I find the lemon pepper notes compliment an Alfredo sauce really well. Lemony and creamy! This one should take you all of 30 minutes in the kitchen for a hearty meal that can serve 6-8 people. Maybe toss in some garlic bread while you’re at it, because everyone loves garlic bread.

Today we’ll be doing more slow cooking! This soup is filling, hearty, warm and super flexible with your favorite toppings. Try it with cilantro, lime, shredded cheese, sour cream, avocado, tomatoes or hot sauce. The great thing about this one is despite looking creamy, no cream or dairy is used. Instead we used a little trick of thickening the soup with an extra can of mashed beans!

So here we have tender pulled chicken simmering on a bed of celery, onions and green chilies and seasoned with oregano and cumin. Toss in some navy or cannellini beans and call it a wholesome meal. You can opt to shred the chicken once it’s cooked long and slow or chop it up into bite-sized pieces. It all depends how spread out you want your chicken to be. I went a little crazy with the shredding, kinda wished I didn’t. Just keep in mind you can also shred it into big chunks. And lastly, feel free to add some heat with red pepper flakes or some cayenne.

Lemon chicken is wonderful if done right. I’ve made a crunchy and buttery lemon pepper version before and some baked juicy crispy-skinned thighs as well. Instead of just adding one layer of flavor with lemon, what I like to do is add several other layers to deepen the flavor while keeping the recipe simple. You already have the tang from the lemon, so we’ll add some sweetness from honey and a little savory taste from soy sauce. And just a few dashes of red pepper flakes for some heat. It makes it that much better.

This version is a saucy and creamy one courtesy of some heavy cream added towards the end. It’s wonderfully delicious and easy to get ready for weeknight dinners. Serve it with some greens like some sauteed broccoli in garlic and smoked paprika.

This one is dee-licious. With the same, much loved flavor profile of honey garlic shrimp, we get to enjoy everyone’s favorite sauce with boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts. It’s simple to cook, quick and easy, but full of yum. And it’s 20-25 minutes (depending on the thickness of your chicken) from prep to table without lacking in flavor. Great for those quick weeknight dinners.

Don’t worry about all the shiny stuff on the pan that looks like oil. It’s actually the sauce. Loads and loads of sauce! This is the stuff that’ll give your chicken that wonderful glaze. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs because I feel they are juicier but if you prefer chicken breasts, this will work too. There’s only five ingredients here and it should serve around four with some sides. Try it with some greens (asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, green beans) or chop it up and toss it in a salad. There’s plenty of ways to enjoy this. So let’s begin.

It’s been awhile since we’ve done a pasta bake, not since the cheesy hot Italian sausage bake we did awhile back. So today we’ll be a doing a pesto chicken pasta bake! This one is slightly Alfredo-y, like my chicken Alfredo pasta bake but also has a taste of pesto and with less of a cheesy top. Instead, we have cheese in the pasta itself, a six cheese Italian blend all mixed up with the Alfredo sauce. There’s also tomatoes, spinach and chicken to go with it and a generous layer of Italian bread crumbs and Parmesan.

All of the ingredients are store-bought items which makes this super easy to put together. I even used rotisserie chicken here so we didn’t have to pre-cook the chicken. Of course, you can make your own Alfredo sauce and cook your own chicken; grilled, pan-fried, whatever way you want. But the emphasis of the recipe is to get a full family-portioned meal with as little hassle as possible. So let’s begin.

Today we’ll be doing a relatively easy chicken breast recipe. Chicken breasts can be pretty bland but I like to think of them as a blank canvas. So we season the chicken with some thyme and rosemary and pan-sear it. At this point, it’s already good on its own, but we’ll also be adding some mushrooms in a rich and creamy sauce seasoned with a little garlic, mustard and smoked paprika.

The sauce is pretty rich so make sure to have some neutral sides to balance it out. Stuff like green beans, broccoli or asparagus will work, so you’re not constantly hit by the richness throughout the meal. There’s enough for four people and it’s one of the 30 minute recipes.

Today we’re doing a relatively simple food fix and something that should work well with the kids. Think of this as a healthier alternative to fast food or frozen chicken nuggets for the little ones. They’re pretty crispy for being baked and versatile enough seasoning wise. So today we’re going to be making some oven-baked buttermilk chicken strips which are basically breaded chicken tenders marinated in a buttermilk mixture.

I’ve had some moderate success with this technique of breading and baking in the oven in the past. I made a Parmesan and herb crusted baked chicken that turned out pretty good last year. And it works for seafood as well like this panko crusted tilapia. But my main gripe about baking stuff was the uneven browning, particularly for chicken.

So today we’ll be addressing that with a little hack I didn’t do last year, which was to toast the bread crumbs prior to breading for an even browning. I’m pretty happy with the results. The toasting is done without any oil in the pan until it’s evenly browned, so it’s still healthy. Pretty nice hack if you ask me. Let’s begin!

Remember how we used a little Old Bay seasoning in our cheddar bay biscuits last week? Today we’re going to use it again for some oven-baked Old Bay buffalo wings. It’s been a long time since I made wings. I think it’s as far back as the grilled Sriracha hot wings I made last year. I’d say it’s due!

These wings are lovingly marinated overnight and then baked for 30-45 minutes before it’s tossed in a buttery hot sauce. And while 45 minutes sounds like a long time, it’s mostly hands-off time which means you can go do other things and in 45 minutes, your wings are ready. Sounds good? Let’s start!

More skewers! Today we’ll have even more skewers for some summer fun. A couple weeks ago I posted Sriracha shrimp skewers to start it off and we’re continuing the fun today. So here’s another recipe in the honey garlic series. If you can’t get enough of the sauce, scroll down for a list of the full series.

As usual it’s only five ingredients to make this happen and less than 30 minutes of cooking time to enjoy the food. There is some time for marinating but I like to think of that as downtime in cooking. Go mingle with your cookout guests, prep something else or do whatever makes you happy.

Chicken breasts can be pretty boring. I usually cook with boneless, skinless chicken breasts so there’s no magical crispy skin that I get to steal from everyone later. They really don’t look at good as thighs and certainly aren’t as juicy. But they’re cheap and easy to deal with in the kitchen, so we stick with it. Yes, chicken breasts can be boring. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be delicious.

Now that I’ve primed you and you’re ready for deliciousness, today we’re gonna make some maple glazed chicken breasts. Simple. Totally not sophisticated. But full of yum.

If you’ve followed me long enough, you’ll know I like depth of flavor. So instead of dumping a whole bunch of maple syrup in there and calling it a maple glaze, I’ve tweaked the flavor profile just a little to have notes of citrus and some soy sauce to balance it out some more.

I had a slow cooker chicken Parmesan recipe I posted a couple years back. It really feels like a lifetime ago. This was about the time the blog was in its infancy stage so I didn’t know much about how to make food look good, just how to make it taste good. So you’ll find yourself staring at an angry red blob atop a bed of spaghetti. Not very appealing, but it was yummy.

So today I’m gonna revisit chicken Parmesan and do it skillet style. It’s faster and definitely more crunchy. It’s still a little messy to look at but I think it’s a slight improvement from the angry blob! I really like the breading here, once you get to the crunchy parts that haven’t been touched by the marinara sauce, it’s pretty droolworthy. So let’s get started!